Lousy service from Modular CNC (New Mexico)

[bmil]

Nine weeks ago I ordered an aluminum 12" linear slide assembly from Modular CNC- I was promised two week delivery. I was billed for the purchase immediately -Paypal. After a few weeks, I started asking about the status: Andy of Modular CNC kept stalling, and after about a month he emailed me a USPS tracking number. However, the USPS tracking site merely showed that a shipment had been electronically registered with them, but had not yet been received by them.
After 6 weeks I finally complained to Paypal, and only then did the USPS finally show that the parcel was in their system.
8 weeks later when I got the parcel, it was missing 2 acme lead screws which I had also ordered.
I asked for a refund for the shortage, and I just get excuses from Andy that his Paypal account is suspended, and he can't refund for the shortage. There was no way I was going to wait another 8 weeks for the lead screws he offered to send me, so I ordered them (got them in 2 days) from MacMaster Carr.
The linear slide assembly I got seems OK, but is no longer sold on the ModularCNC.com website.
Save yourselves a hassle- get your CNC router pieces elsewhere! All the other suppliers of the parts I needed were great: CNCrouterparts.com, dumpsterCNC, Keling, cpiautomation (8020 extrusion).

[gpraceman]

Unfortunately, I had a very bad experience with Modular CNC as well. They also go by the seller name of "cnc-empire" on eBay. I thought I had found a good company to get an inexpensive CNC mill from. After doing some research, I could not find any negative feedback about them or their machines. Unfortunately, every step of trying to get the mill from them was a hassle.

First, it took awhile for Andy, the owner, to provide me a quote. I tried to be patient, since he indicated that his wife was in the hospital. Email responses from him were too often slow and I had to send emails to at least two of his email addresses to make sure they got to him. I finally did get a quote on a partially assembled mill with a controller unit. The price seemed good, so I ordered one. I paid via PayPal, which turned out to be a mistake. It took nearly 6 weeks before the mill shipped, almost a week longer than promised. There was no communication that there would be any delay. Instead, Andy indicated that it had shipped on 4/28. However, the shipping label indicated that it really shipped on 4/30. That didn't sit well with me. What also didn't sit well was that he shipped it via USPS Parcel Post of all things. The tracking info for the machine was non-existent. It took an inordinate amount of time to arrive (was only going from NM to CO) and I had no idea where it was along the way. It took 10 days to arrive. By that time, I was absolutely fed up. I had no confidence in a product made by a company that is not able to run their business in a professional and honorable manner. Also, the shipping box looked Frankensteined together, which is not what I expect for a product costing $775.

I shipped the mill right back to him unopened and requested a refund. That was May 11. Here it is June 12 and he has yet to refund my money. First he claimed that he was having PayPal account problems and then later he said he was having cash flow issues. He promised to provide the refund by June 11, but has failed to live up to that promise. I have tried to be patient, but now I feel that I have been shafted. I am out over $825, when you factor in shipping costs. PayPal will not do anything, since it is past their 45 days to file a dispute. I was past that even before the machine shipped. I run a small company and because of this loss, I will likely have to cancel a planned business trip. I hope that my feedback will keep someone from making the same mistakes that I did.



Well, I still had the need for a CNC machine for my business, so I ordered a Zenbot 1216. That was on May 29. I received it on June 10 and started setting it up. Part of the gantry did suffer some shipping damage, but that company immediately shipped out a whole replacement gantry. Email responses have been prompt. Shipping was via UPS, so tracking info was readily available. It has been a night and day experience between the two companies. Zenbot has been much more professional, with good customer service and I feel far better that their machine will meet my needs.

[bmil]

hello grace man. I am sorry to hear that you have had a similarly poor experience with Andy. I had ALL the same excuses, etc that you did. He obviously is playing the 45 day limit on the pay pal dispute mechanism. I never got the $40 refund he owes me for the acme screws missing from my order, so I would be surprised if you get your refund.
I don't want to see others get ripped off by modularCNC, and I think it's a good idea to post as many threads as possible on similar forums. I am an electronics technologist, and am going to post some more bad feedback on the electronics/robotics forums, and I think it might also be worthwhile to post on woodworking forums as well.
Glad you had better luck the second time around. My DIY router is finished and working well- but I could have done without the 8 week delay from modularcnc.

[Modular CNC]

Hi All,

I am still working on everybody's refunds. Please read the following excerpt from a non-supportive paypal website. It describes my problems to the "T".

Merchants finding themselves on the wrong end of a frozen Paypal account will still have to find some way to pay their obligations and fill orders for the weeks and months while the account is restricted. A domino effect occurs when a merchant's account is frozen, leaving them with No Means To Fill Orders. Those orders are then disputed by customers, creating more chargebacks and the illusion of fraudulent activity on the part of the merchant.

Andy

[gpraceman]

Andy,

I am more than willing to pull my negative feedback once I get my refund. Maybe the others will do the same. I just felt that a month of waiting for a refund would have been sufficient enough time for you to make good. I do have to wonder how your account got frozen in the first place. If you cannot get your PayPal account restored, then you should have already been looking at alternative payment gateways, like Google Checkout. ... I just took a moment to check your website. Seems you've already implemented Google Checkout.

Of course, I had offered to charge your credit card, since I run my own business. You never called to take me up on that. I'm an honest businessman. You can certainly research me on the Internet rather easily to confirm that. I'd certainly like it if I didn't have to cancel my business trip because of this loss.

Randy

[bmil]

I've known that the paypal account was frozen for some time- I don't need any more excuses about that. Here's the email you sent a month ago

Hi Brian,

I am having trouble with my paypal account right now. Can I send you a business check or money order or some other transfer method?

Andy

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

No refund has arrived in the mail- and I don't expect I'll ever get one.

[Modular CNC]

Hi Brian,

"A domino effect occurs when a merchant's account is frozen, leaving them with No Means To Fill Orders. Those orders are then disputed by customers, creating more chargebacks and the illusion of fraudulent activity on the part of the merchant."

Are you going to remove all of the negative comments when you receive your refund? If I were a fraud and cheat then I would go run and hide somewhere. I am not I am here and I will be issuing you your refund.

Andy

[bmil]

Having a suspended Paypal account only means you can't take any NEW orders. When an order comes in, you immediately bill the customer through Paypal- so you have already been paid for any existing orders which you have not filled.
All I ever expected was some honesty- instead I was strung along for 8 weeks, and have been hearing your repeated claims that you will send a refund.
I feel sorry for all the other people who have responded to my posts that have lost large amounts of money and delays.

[Fireman11]

I would think some effort into solving the problems--getting the money back to people right away, them some sort of "I am sorry I have had xyz problem in the past, its now fixed by abc, and I am shipping either COD, or I have set up a merchant credit card account so my customer have some protection.

Its not hard to do.

If you don't have the resources to do this, I would recommend getting a job, because you won't be in business for long.

[Modular CNC]

Brian,

Your are wrong about a frozen Paypal account. I cannot do anything with it right now.

99.99% of all of my business transactions happened with my Paypal account. I did everything with my business using that account. It was very convenient. I purchased inventory, shipping labels, paid for all of my other business expenses using that account. Needless to say, when it became frozen, it turned my busines upside down. I have been trying to recover ever since.

I have your refund but it appears that I need to have some guaranteed way to get it to you or you will contiue to bad mouth me as much as you can.

Andy

[Ron Dunn]

You should NEVER use PayPal as a transactional account for business.

If you must use it to accept payments, transfer the money out of there to a proper bank account without delay.

The way PayPal is run I often think its directors must be "family".